Australian Word Map

A highly prized smoky green coloured glass ball used in the game of marbles. They were recycled glass stoppers from the necks of aerated glass bottles. Similar to the bottle from which the word "Codswollap" originates: I lost my best bot playing marbles.

Contributor's comments: Alleys was the game in Orbost, but the tor/taw was your favourite/special marble. Often this was a bot - the spherical glass bead used to seal early soft drink bottles.

Editor's comments: No doubt a shortening of "bottler" (or "bottle-oh", or "bottley") the glass stoppers found inside early softdrink bottles and commonly used as marbles.

Contributor's comments: "Bot" is the same expression as used in Tocumwal (NSW). We did, however, call them "billy bots" and "bottleys".

Contributor's comments: Somewhat to my surprise I came across 'bot' used as a verb by a Melburnian. It was used in the sense of 'to borrow' probably without an intention to return the borrowed item. Perhaps similar to 'scrounge' or 'bludge'. Another Victorian was surprised that I was unfamiliar with the term.

Contributor's comments: "Bot" was in common use in Orbost, Gippsland (50's-60's) and Melbourne (60's-70's). It referred both to the act of borrowing ("Can I bot a cigarette?") and to the borrower ("Watch him, he's a real bot").

Contributor's comments: I grew up at Howlong, near Albury, in the 50s and 60s. My father used the word 'bot' as a verb and a noun. It was a pejorative term for someone taking what someone else has, with no intention of paying it back.

Contributor's comments: Never heard of it as a marble, in Melbourne it always meant to cadge or borrow (without intending to return, or getting a consumable.) Derived from botflies, which burrow into animals' skins and feed off their hosts?